Are There Any Faith-based Christian IMO/FMO's

[dosomething410]

I just don't understand where you all are coming from. For one, I said right up front that I am new. Being new, I've not worked with any IMO. Having no experience, and the thousands of IMO's, I thought I would start with something I know.

Second, I also never said I'm going to use Christianity as part of my spiel. Why all the negative assumptions? What have I done to any of you? Or is this just "kick the Christian" day. Do you meet with a customer and see a cross necklace and begin berating them? I'm sure each of you have Christian customers who would be apalled to see your responses. You don't care as long as you take their money.

Bottom line, I politely asked for direction. If you get upset at newbies asking questions, then maybe you shouldn't be reading posts in a forum section titled "Getting Started".

 

[sshafran]

I just don't understand where you all are coming from. For one, I said right up front that I am new. Being new, I've not worked with any IMO. Having no experience, and the thousands of IMO's, I thought I would start with something I know.

Second, I also never said I'm going to use Christianity as part of my spiel. Why all the negative assumptions? What have I done to any of you? Or is this just "kick the Christian" day. Do you meet with a customer and see a cross necklace and begin berating them? I'm sure each of you have Christian customers who would be apalled to see your responses. You don't care as long as you take their money.

Bottom line, I politely asked for direction. If you get upset at newbies asking questions, then maybe you shouldn't be reading posts in a forum section titled "Getting Started".

Well, this comment didn't help your case: "It sounds to me like the entire industry is full of snakes."

Secondly, don't get so defensive (yikes!) - we really are trying to help.

Third, if it's a "kick the Christian" day then many of us would get kicked - myself included.

Fourth - I asked you a question, and you did not answer it. What exactly are you afraid of when it comes to IMOs? Having worked with many who operate professionally, I'm curious where this idea of "snakes" comes from.

Finally, if you feel like the forum is "berating" you - this might not be the career for you. Go back to IT where you can code without prospect mind games, rejection, and competition. 92% of agents fail.

Most of them felt "berated" by the market.

 

[dosomething410]

Let's just take these one at a time.

First, I already admitted the snakes comment was too harsh.

Secondly, if I did not have thick skin, I would have simply stop posting and go hide in a corner. There have been a few helpful posts. But most are simply insulting.

Third, I sure couldn't tell by your demeanor.

Fourth, Let's be honest. Do you mean to tell me that you have never seen a post on here about a bad IMO? Because I have read several. Just look at this thread.

What am I looking for? An ethical IMO that puts morals above profits (already stated). And if I knew exactly what I'm looking for I probably wouldn't be asking here. Again, I'm new, looking for advice, and there are thousands of IMO's (already stated also).

Finally, I really don't care what any you think of me. It seems to me like I asked a simple question and everyone else got all defensive. And 99.9% of you couldn't do what I do now. The competition will be a piece of cake if this is a good representation of the industry.

 

[DHK]

dosomething410,

1. The problem is... is you've been pre-labeled and prejudged by all those that came before you. It's not fair, but it's human nature.

2. How would you measure "ethics over profits"? How would you know this? Can you give us an example of what you're looking for?

3. If #2 is too hard to figure out on your own right now, it's because you aren't trained yet. You may be licensed, but not trained. That means that you don't have a basis for comparison... and (I'm assuming) you don't want your clients to "pay the price" for any lack of understanding on your part.

In short, you want to know who you can trust to get started with.

4. You may also be concerned about your personal reputation and that "birds of a feather, flock together" and you don't want to be screwing people over while you think you're serving them - and burn bridges with your clients and within the community and spoil your name & reputation.

Am I close?

Assuming that's the case... we still don't know what you want to sell. Do you want to sell:
- Indexed Universal Life,
- Mortgage Protection Term Insurance,
- Whole Life,
- Universal Life,
- Final expense whole life,
- Disability Insurance,
- Critical Illness,
- Long term care,
- Cancer policies,
- Health Insurance,
- Group health, life, disability, long term care policies to businesses

OR... what problems you want to solve and for whom.

Can you tell that the ONLY thing we have to go on... is your desire to be with an ethical Christian IMO that puts ethics over profits? There is FAR more to consider, and with so little information, all we can do is say "there's this company and that company".

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As soon as we know what market you want to serve, products you are interested in selling, and problems you want to help people solve... the better our answers can be for you.

 

[TampaHound]

I found this interesting. I'm not sure if it's of interest to you or not dosomething410.

However reading through what they offer, I personally could not recommend them in good (business) faith.

Medical Cost Sharing Inc - A Christian Alternative To Health Insurance

 

[dosomething410]

DHK, constructive comment and I appreciate it. I do have a lot to learn about the industry. Looking at IMO's has been overwhelming.

With no experience, I would like to start with more simple products. From what I have read, it sounds as if Term/Mortgage Protection and/or Final Expense would be the easiest. Again, I am asking for advice here. I do not want to start selling something that I don't know enough about to serve my customer well. I guess the question is, what product is easiest to learn? Also, I only have a Life license at this time.

As far as the prejudging, I just find it ironic that those who are prejudging are the ones who claim they are the most ethical. I'm not concerned with fairness. Life isn't fair.

 

[scagnt83]

Most businesses are ethical and a minority are not. This is true in any and every industry.

Many, if not most, IMOs are owned by Christians in my experience.

I could care less what religion an IMO owner is.... what I care about is their process for product recommendations and their efficiency in processing cases and getting them issued. After that, I care about fair comp and a release agreement.

Plenty of christian IMO owners provide this... some do not. Plenty of muslim/hindu/jewish/athiest IMO owners provide this... some do not.

When a for-profit business' main pitch is their religion, I always wonder why they cant advertise based on the quality of the service/product they provide.

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Second, I also never said I'm going to use Christianity as part of my spiel. Why all the negative assumptions? What have I done to any of you? Or is this just "kick the Christian" day.

I dont know that anyone accused you of doing so. Most of the comments were about IMOs that openly market themselves as "christian based agencies".

The majority of members on this forum are christian and the majority in this industry are christian.

There is easily over 100 years of insurance industry experence that has given you advice in this thread. Id talk less, listen more, & ask more focused questions.

 

[VolAgent]

Earlier Affinity Fraud was mentioned.

The sad thing is, by looking for an IMO that advertises themselves as Christian, you are probably going to be a victim of it.

"I'm also a Christian, you can trust me." Is the definition of affinity fraud.

Now, I don't consider myself a Christian, but I stand by what I have said. Anyone I have ever encountered who actively promoted their religion in business was not doing it for good reasons. It may not have been outright fraud, but they weren't far off.

Like SCAgent83 said, if they are highly competent and ethical, then why are they having to advertise their religion instead of what they offer their agents?

Just focus on what they know and how they are going to help you succeed. You'll find a much better IMO that way and you won't care what religion the person is.

And no, I don't know of anyone on this forum who is successful that ever cared what religion a prospect or client was. I know I don't. Muslim, Jewish, Christian, atheist, whatever, I don't care about your religion. I care can I solve your problem and get paid to do it.

 

[DHK]

DHK, constructive comment and I appreciate it. I do have a lot to learn about the industry. Looking at IMO's has been overwhelming.

The reason looking at IMOs is overwhelming for you... is because you're looking at the IMO/agent relationship... like a job. You're looking to work FOR an IMO who will "train" you.

That's not the right way to go about this. You are looking to HIRE an IMO.

In order to HIRE an IMO, you need to already have a direction and a heading of what you're looking to do. THEN you can look for an alignment of your vision with an IMO that will have products and a philosophy to support your business model.

With no experience, I would like to start with more simple products. From what I have read, it sounds as if Term/Mortgage Protection and/or Final Expense would be the easiest. Again, I am asking for advice here. I do not want to start selling something that I don't know enough about to serve my customer well. I guess the question is, what product is easiest to learn? Also, I only have a Life license at this time.

You can do a lot with a life license. At least NOW you have an idea of what you're looking for.



With term life/mortgage protection and final expense, you can be looking at the pink/purple properties and railroads in my "Monopoly model".

I think it's a great place to start your career. You'll probably want to peruse the Final Expense forum for more ideas.

I'd recommend getting your accident & sickness or other health insurance license so you can eventually offer disability, critical illness, health, medicare supplement, and long-term care insurance.

 

[Todd King]

DHK, constructive comment and I appreciate it. I do have a lot to learn about the industry. Looking at IMO's has been overwhelming.

With no experience, I would like to start with more simple products. From what I have read, it sounds as if Term/Mortgage Protection and/or Final Expense would be the easiest. Again, I am asking for advice here. I do not want to start selling something that I don't know enough about to serve my customer well. I guess the question is, what product is easiest to learn? Also, I only have a Life license at this time.

As far as the prejudging, I just find it ironic that those who are prejudging are the ones who claim they are the most ethical. I'm not concerned with fairness. Life isn't fair.

I think you have misunderstood the reasons behind why we are saying some of the things we're saying to you. No one is bashing you. There are many agents that are doing business the right way based on their ethics. Most of them don't have to bring up their religious views simply because they don't have to. Their caring and honesty shows. The minute you start bringing up WHY you are ethical you're going to start losing sales that you could have gotten. Hey, maybe that's not "right", but it is what it is. All we're doing is advising you NOT to use religion as your crutch. Just be you.

Secondly, we're also trying to tell you that it does not matter if your IMO is religious or not, as long as they do the right thing by you. It was mentioned before that you are looking at it backwards. The IMO should be working for you, not the other way around.

As far as Mortgage Protection AND FE....nope, the 2 don't go hand in hand (no matter what a couple of IMO's might try to tell you). Pick one of the 2 and go for it.

If you are going to go the FE route, then I was suggest taking a look at us or FEX contracting. I know we are ethical and I can say the same about FEX.